GEM No.

567
Development and Implementation of a Loving
Support Makes Breastfeeding Work Social Media
Toolkit for WIC Staff
Kathleen Pellechia, RDN1; Valery Soto, MS, RD, CLC2; Melanie Haake, MPH, RD2;
Janice Schneider, MS, RD, FAND1

INTRODUCTION Social media crosses socioeconomic enhanced with the addition of a social
and geographic lines and can inform media toolkit for World Breastfeeding
For 20 years, Loving Support Makes and empower people, increase Week/National Breastfeeding Month
Breastfeeding Work (Loving Support) has communication speed, and mobilize (August, 2016).
been the US Department of Agricul- partnerships.2 A 2011 evaluation of
ture's (USDA's) national breastfeeding state health departments found that
(BF) promotion and support campaign
DESCRIPTION
60% used at least 1 social media chan-
and the foundation for BF efforts in nel; of those, 86.7% had Twitter, 56% The goal of the project was to create
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Pro- had Facebook, and 43% had YouTube.3 sample graphics and messages based
gram for Women, Infants and Children A similar survey conducted in 2013 of on the campaign that could be used
(WIC).1 The goals of the campaign 2,565 local health departments found by WIC agencies and partners to reach
are to increase BF initiation and dura- that 24% had Facebook accounts, 8% participants, eligible participants, and
tion rates as well as provide support to had Twitter accounts, and 7% had the public. Messages were developed
WIC participants. The campaign is both.4 In addition, local health depart- using content from the Loving Support
based on a social marketing approach, ments were more likely to have social campaign materials and Loving Support
emphasizing the importance of the media accounts if their state offices Peer Counseling Training.7
support of family, friends, health care did.4,5 A 2014 focus group study of 26 Agencies were encouraged to link
providers, employers, and the commu- Expanded Food and Nutrition Education to the Loving Support Web site and
nity for BF success. Program (EFNEP) graduates found that use the hashtag #WICLovingSupport
Through a contract with the USDA participants would be receptive to in their posts. Agencies could also
Food and Nutrition Service in April, social media as a nutrition education customize the messages and graphics
2011 and January, 2012, the Institute tool if they were current and provided as needed to promote their own activ-
of Medicine (renamed the National via a trustworthy source.6 Through ities and events. The toolkit included
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, the dissemination of standardized mes- Facebook covers and posts, Twitter
and Medicine in 2015) assembled sages and graphics, social media can be headers and posts, a Twibbon, an In-
experts to provide guidance on ac- optimized for the delivery of evidence- stagram post, and an e-card. A guide
tions needed to update the existing based nutrition information. to using the toolkit with sample mes-
campaign.1 One aspect discussed was In 2014, the USDA launched a sages was created as well. The Figure
using technology and social media to mobile-responsive Web site to assist shows sample images and messages.
reach millennial mothers, the 37 WIC staff in engaging participants
million women born in the US be- and community partners.7 Resources IMPLEMENTATION AND
tween 1977 and 1994. This group included posters, brochures, videos,
uses social media as a major tool for widgets, graphics, and BF peer coun-
RESULTS
communication; its members' phones seling training. Recognizing the op- The toolkit was launched on July 12,
are ‘‘a functional tool that they portunity for spreading messages via 2016 and received 4,319 page views
cannot live without.’’1 social media, the Web site was by the end of August. Overall there
were 9,432 downloads of all Loving
Support materials and 29,745 page
views to the Loving Support Web site.
1
US Department of Agriculture, WIC Works Resource System, Alexandria, VA This was a 50% increase in page views
2
US Department of Agriculture–Food and Nutrition Service, Special Supplemental Nutrition and a 17% increase in downloads over
Program for Women, Infants, and Children, Alexandria, VA the previous month, before the
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors’ conflict of interest disclosures can be found online launch of the toolkit. Use of the tool-
with this article on www.jneb.org. kit continued since August with
Address for correspondence: Kathleen Pellechia, RDN, Department of Agriculture, WIC 1,507 page views between August,
Works Resource System, Alexandria, VA 22302; E-mail: kathleen.pellechia@fns.usda.gov 2016 and February, 2017. The number
J Nutr Educ Behav. 2017;49:S212-S213 of users for that same period was
Published by Elsevier, Inc. on behalf of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. 5,007 (new and returning users).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2017.03.022 There were 2,342 downloads of social

S212 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior  Volume 49, Number 7S2, 2017
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior  Volume 49, Number 7S2, 2017 Pellechia et al S213

the US Department of Health and Hu-

Facebook cover man Services guidelines (http://www.
hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/checklists/decisi
oncharts.html#c1) and per agency
review. More information about the
USDA Loving Support Web site is avail-
able online.7
Instagram post

Message 1 "The WIC program can help you reach your breastfeeding goals, with
a little loving support! https://lovingsupport.fns.usda.gov/
#WICLovingSupport"
Message 2 "Ready, Set, Breastfeed! #WBW2016 #WICLovingSupport"
Message 3 "Fathers, grandmothers, and more provide Mom with the care and
support she needs to #breastfeed. #WICLovingSupport https://
lovingsupport.fns.usda.gov/"
Figure. Sample social media graphics and messages of Loving Support. WIC indi-
cates Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
media graphics, with Facebook covers Future steps will be to develop addi-
and posts, the e-card, and Instagram tional social media graphics and mes-
posts as the most downloaded items. sages for dissemination via the Loving
The Twibbon campaign had 36 sup- Support Web site.
porters. A TweetReach snapshot report Translating policy and guidance
from August 2 to August 6 (during into action-oriented messages that
World Breastfeeding Week) showed WIC agencies can easily use and
that the hashtag #WICLovingSupport disseminate can increase the exposure
had 60 tweets from 40 contributors, of evidence-based nutrition messages.
287,820 accounts reached (the num- Although it is a relatively low-cost
ber of people who likely saw content), communication strategy, social media
and 362,607 impressions (the number involves a high cost in time and atten-
of times people likely reached). tion needed to maintain an active pres-
ence.8 By providing a ready-to-go social
media toolkit, the Food and Nutrition
IMPACT Service was able to offer consistent
messaging, but it also reduced WIC staff
In the month the toolkit launched,
workload and reached many people
there was an increase in traffic to the
with information about BF promotion
Web site and there appeared to be con-
tent engagement, with (1) agencies and support.
posting social media graphics and
posts and (2) their followers liking NOTES
Facebook posts and retweeting Tweets.
These items were visible by searching This study did not require institu-
for the hashtag #WICLovingSupport. tional review board approval as per
REFERENCES
1. Institute of Medicine. Updating the
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2. Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
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Media Toolkit. http://www.cdc.gov/heal
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27, 2017.
3. Thackeray R, Neige BL, Smith AK,
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S213.e1 Pellechia et al Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior  Volume 49, Number 7S2, 2017

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have not stated conflicts
of interest.